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I have no wish here to describe or evaluate what various Emergence churches are saying and doing and thinking about when it comes to the Sacraments, which for most Protestants has always been limited to Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper \u2014 and not always called sacraments. Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism differ both on number and theology of what sacraments mean and do. It is well known that many are dabbling with other sacraments, and exploring (this is why Emergence is a conversation) what role they might play in faith.<\/p>\n
Instead, what I\u2019d like to toss on the table is the spectrum from the Aesthetic to the Sacramental, and this in part comes from my always insightful colleague, Greg Clark (Philosophy prof). <\/p>\n
Let us say there is a spectrum from the left to the right (and this is not about politics or theology). At the far left is the view that various acts (I\u2019ll call them sacamentals) are Aesthetics and on the far right is the view that various acts are Effective Sacramentals.<\/p>\n
At the left of this spectrum individual acts \u2014 like the Lord\u2019 Supper, saying the Creeds, lighting candles, burning incense, wearing vestments, dressing up the building in the colors of the Church Calendar \u2014 are experienced for their beauty, for their form, for their color, for their taste, for their perspective, for the sheer splendor of their spectacle. All good Sacraments are at least this.<\/p>\n
In the middle is what I shall call Aesthetic Sacramentals, where individual acts \u2014 again the same list \u2014 are experienced and understood both for their form and for the message they mediate to those who see them and know them and experience them.<\/p>\n
And, at the right \u2014 please forgive what can only be called unfortunate language \u2014 are what I want to call Effective Sacramentals, where individuals acts may or may not be experienced for their form, may or may not be experienced for their beauty, but which are transforming events in that the person who sees them, knows them, touches them, experiences them, sees through them into the mysteries of God, moves because of them into a deeper love of God and others, and who therefore is being restored to be a genuine Eikon of God. (I say \u201cmay or may not\u201d because sometimes the mysterious takes us unaware, as when a sacramental suddenly takes us beyond what we were expecting.)<\/p>\n
Clearly, I side with Effective Sacramentals (who wouldn\u2019t?), and I do not mean that someone cannot experience both the sheer beauty of the form as well as the person-shaping essence, nor do I want to suggest that form and substance here can be easily distinguished. Nor do I want to suggest that we can always conjure up transforming sacramentals into Effective Sacramentals \u2014 the Spirit blows where it wants and, like the Pevensie children, we can\u2019t always control whether or not the Wardrobe door will permit us entry into Narnia.<\/p>\n
What I do mean is that sacramentals are more than aesthetics though they are aesthetics. Some in our day are attracted to the sacramental as an aesthetic and confuse the aesthetic with the effective sacramental, but the lack of a genuine transformation is apparent. And, on top of this, the theology inherent in the sacramental is entirely missed.<\/p>\n
What we are in need of is a genuine and fresh re-visiting of what a biblical sacramental theology might look like in our day \u2014 and not just as a \u201ctheology\u201d but as a theology turned into an effective sacrament.<\/p>\n
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I have no wish here to describe or evaluate what various Emergence churches are saying and doing and thinking about when it comes to the Sacraments, which for most Protestants has always been limited to Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper \u2014 and not always called sacraments. Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism differ both on number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-movement"],"yoast_head":"\n
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